Cork to Limerick Motorway

[Rebelred]

One step closer to reality... or just another pipe dream?

€1bn Cork-Limerick motorway plan a step closer

By Eoin English

Thursday, February 25, 2010

PLANS for one of the country’s longest and most expensive motorways linking Cork and Limerick will be lodged with An Bord Pleanála today.

The €1 billion M20 project features:

* 80 kilometres of dual divided motorway.

* 6km of dual carriageway.

* 45km of associated national, regional and local roads

* A motorway service area at Lissard, near Rathduff.

* 46 road bridges, eight river bridges and two railway bridges.

* 33 structures for land or farm access, and 36 major culverts.

Land values along the proposed route and construction costs have not been finalised. But the M3 from Clonee, west of Dublin, to Kells, which is 20km longer and due to open in July, will cost some €1bn.

The M20 will start at the existing Blarney junction and will remain online with the existing N20 to Mourneabbey. The proposed route will then veer east from the existing N20 passing east of Mallow and Buttevant. It will rejoin the existing N20 for about 2km at Velvetstown before again veering to the east.

It will cross the N20 just south of Ballyhea, pass west of Charleville and continue west of the existing N20 until the Croom bypass.

Most of the bypass will be reutilised as part of the new development and the new scheme will terminate near the existing junction at Attyflin, Co Limerick. An oral hearing on the proposed route will be held this summer and subject to funding, construction could start before the end of 2011. The project is being coordinated by Cork County Council and Limerick County Council, with the support of the National Roads Authority.

When the corridor scheme is complete, Cork and Galway will be linked by some 200km of motorway.



This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, February 25, 2010

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/home/e...-plan-a-step-closer-113078.html#ixzz0gXJdHkfq

 

[Stacky]

Great news - Limerick crimelord scumbags will be able to race to Cork in 45 minutes.

 

[jd26]

What would be good would be if they could combine the Chalreville to Patrickswell section with a railway line to make Cork and Limerick properly rail connected (and give Limerick a commuter line into the bargain).

It's fairly standard practice to build new road and rail links together in other countries.

If only we had a Green Party in government...

 

[johnmcork]

What would be good would be if they could combine the Chalreville to Patrickswell section with a railway line to make Cork and Limerick properly rail connected (and give Limerick a commuter line into the bargain).

It's fairly standard practice to build new road and rail links together in other countries.

If only we had a Green Party in government...

the old charleville to limerick rail-line is only about 18 miles long. for the sake of 18 miles of track cork and limerick could be connected by rail. handy for munster matches & of course commuting

instead they build 100k of motorway and cut my sleepy village of ballyhea in two forever

 

[irishmonkey]

eh the car is faster and cheaper than the train.
well in this country

 

[Stacky]

the old charleville to limerick rail-line is only about 18 miles long. for the sake of 18 miles of track cork and limerick could be connected by rail. handy for munster matches & of course commuting

instead they build 100k of motorway and cut my sleepy village of ballyhea in two forever

Nobody wants to go to Charleville not even the locals who know all the back roads to avoid the place. A Cork - Limerick railway line is just not sustainable. You could seriously argue that the only viable lines are Cork - Dublin - Belfast & The Cork and Dublin sub-urban lines. The western rail corridor is some local hick politicians pipe dream.

 

[jd26]

the old charleville to limerick rail-line is only about 18 miles long. for the sake of 18 miles of track cork and limerick could be connected by rail. handy for munster matches & of course commuting

instead they build 100k of motorway and cut my sleepy village of ballyhea in two forever

The old railway line wouldn't really be suitable for upgrade because such a bad job was done constructing it. It would be cheaper to build a new one.

Nobody wants to go to Charleville not even the locals who know all the back roads to avoid the place. A Cork - Limerick railway line is just not sustainable. You could seriously argue that the only viable lines are Cork - Dublin - Belfast & The Cork and Dublin sub-urban lines. The western rail corridor is some local hick politicians pipe dream.

I'd argue that any two population centres that can justify being connected by motorway can also justify a rail connection. If we actually built the rail connection and motorway at the same time, it would slash the costs involved.

On this particular route, you could also get a Charleville, Croom & Patrickswell to Limerick commuter line in as well as opening up Cork-Limerick services. Considering there are around 1,200 bus seats available a day each way between the two cities, there is apparent demand for long--distance public transport too.

 

[Rebelred]

eh the car is faster and cheaper than the train.
well in this country

given the standard of rail infrastructure in this country though, that's hardly an achievement.

 

[Eoin]

the old charleville to limerick rail-line is only about 18 miles long. for the sake of 18 miles of track cork and limerick could be connected by rail. handy for munster matches & of course commuting

instead they build 100k of motorway and cut my sleepy village of ballyhea in two forever

Yeah, would have been nice when I was regularly commuting between Cork and Limerick on the train. Limerick junction is a depressing hole of a place on a cold january morning.

 

[POL]

The old railway line wouldn't really be suitable for upgrade because such a bad job was done constructing it. It would be cheaper to build a new one.

Have you got the figures on that?